Documenting my journey through life, using words, pictures and film!

Birthday Bokeh – 211/365

Oooooooh, happy birthday to me! Another year older probably none the wiser……….

Aside from still recovering from this flu thing, I’ve had a really nice day! I woke up to two excited girls with presents in their hands for me; they could barely contain themselves and wanted to open everything immediately.

So, we did just that, I opened some cards and the girls got to work on the presents. I got some lovely cards and gifts from my friends and family, but the one I’ll “focus” on here, is my Nifty Fifty that my gorgeous wife bought me! A canon 50mm f1.8 mark2.

It’s a lens I’ve wanted for a while now, as I nearly always have my 18-55mm sat on the front of my camera, and I often use it at around 55mm, unless I’m shooting a landscape. I thought a 50mm prime lens would be right up my street.

I immediately gave the lens a quick clean, and fitted it to my camera, and I wasn’t to be disappointed by the results from it!

Admittedly, the girls always look gorgeous, but in the morning sun beaming through the window, coupled with the super shallow depth of field and smooth bokeh, I instantly knew I was going to love this lens.

After work, I headed straight out doors to capture some more images with that wide f1.8 aperture now at my disposal.

Such a wide aperture not only gives you nice shallow depth of field, and smooth bokeh, but also it enables faster shutter speeds thanks to the amount of light it lets in; and today I was using speeds like I never have before!

When the girls followed me outside, and started playing on the trampoline, I put the camera into servo focus mode to track the focus on them jumping around, to see what I could capture.

I think, for a change, I’ll let the photographs do the talking………

Learnings – I have a lot to figure out about my new lens yet, but after my first day with it, I am already in love. Interestingly, although the wide aperture and fast shutter speeds have blown me away, by opening up a whole host of new photographic possibilities, what really took my breath away was the one thing I was nervous of, no adjustment to focal length.

Now, I know that’s the point of a prime, or a fixed lens, that it’s a fixed focal length; but until now every lens or camera I’ve shot with has had adjustable focal length, so not having it was a little daunting.

That soon disappeared though, because the fixed focal length forces you to move, and it also gives you a sense of “freedom” I really wasn’t expecting, and actually it has a huge sense of fun attached to it. It genuinely made me smile from ear to ear, like the first time you ride a bike on your own, and that new feeling just sends all your nerve endings and emotions into overdrive, trying to take on and enjoy this entirely new sensation.

I adore it, and not for the first time in this challenge I am super exited to see where my little Nifty Fifty will take me………..

One last photograph from today, and it’s an interesting one. It’s Livvy on the trampoline, almost entirely out of focus save for the tip of her plait; and I adore it!!